LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sykes’ plate drives home bad attitude

Larry Sykes has lost credibility as a Toledo City Council member (“Police say Sykes’ profiling claim is unfounded; Officer did give reason for stop,” May 14). That he drives a vehicle with a license plate reading “4DRWBLK” — which stands for “4 driving while black” — is an obvious symptom of a problematic, negative racial attitude.

The license plate is a display of arrogant and insensitive forethought, raising justified concern among those who see it. The casual observer might believe the driver has an ax to grind and is a threat to public safety. All caring citizens would find it appalling to learn the owner of this license plate is an elected Toledo leader.

Councilman Sykes should resign, or at least be given sensitivity training to learn how to understand and work with white people.

In response to your March 24 article “Stereotactic radiation allows surgery without the knife for cancer patients”: The statement that “the University of Toledo Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center is the only facility in the region to offer this service with its Varian TrueBeam system” gives a false impression.

The Hickman Cancer Center at ProMedica Flower Hospital has had stereotactic radiosurgery for the past 13 or 14 years. I have been using this technology since 1993. The Hickman center has been doing stereotactic body radiotherapy for more than five years.

The Dana center is the only institution in the area to deliver stereotaxis with a TrueBeam machine. But whether a doctor uses a TrueBeam or any other machine to treat a patient, the fundamental technology and results are the same.

DR. STEVEN RUBIN

Director

Radiation Therapy

Hickman Cancer Center

ProMedica Flower Hospital

Sylvania

Shootings show law’s failings

Two Readers’ Forum letters on April 16 criticized the shootings at two women who had bravely reported the shooting of a dog (“Shooting at 2 women is shameful,” “2 women make community better”).

The shootings at the women and of the dog were crimes. But there was another crime: the efforts by lawmakers and the National Rifle Association to allow people to buy guns easily.

I’m not talking about taking away Second Amendment rights. The amendment declares that a citizen can get a weapon — a single-shot musket when the amendment was written — for protection.

Where have the true constitutionalists of the Supreme Court been all these years?

ADELE FEDERMAN

Mockingbird Lane

Commissioners, put up or shut up

If the Lucas County Board of Commissioners think that it is such a good idea to raise the state’s minimum hourly wage to $10.10, why doesn’t it lead by example and raise the minimum wage in the county first (“Lucas County officials to urge action raising minimum pay,” April 1)?

Maybe because the commissioners don’t want to be blamed for any loss of jobs that will surely happen.